Urban Style File: Singapore Boutique Hotels (5 of 10)

What gives cities its unique style? Its personality and character? Is it the fashion style of its residents? Or the artistic communities, expressing their art-form to the outside world. Is it the historic fabric of the city, embodied in all her historic buildings and edifices with all their different architectural styles?

Perhaps all of the above. Each city is as unique as her personal story of how it came about, embellished by a colorful history, replete with its own trials and tribulations. Much like Boutique Hotels that have become a permanent fixture in cities across the world. Each with a distinctive character, style, charm and attitude, to suit any lifestyle.

From classic elegance, eclectic mix, to hip haunts and too-cool-too-drool (click on picture). Here’s a look at boutique hotels in Singapore, a city formerly known only for its strict regulation, spic-and-span clean image, and one of the four original Tiger Economies, transforming the smallest nations in Asia into a first-world economy in a span of only three decades. Already a major hub and center for trade, finance, transportation, IT, and biomedicine, the 2nd highest Asian GNP per capita nation after Japan, is finally letting its hair down, bringing on a more casual, approachable and downright fun image. Home to the only city-based F1 Grand Prix, and come 2011, two world-class Casinos and Universal Studios theme park.